


his name is Pyro, like you wanted

by leothequeenn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: College AU, M/M, and like implied percico, i dunno, i just want leo to be a cat lover, theres like slight pipabeth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>basically, jason and leo see an orange little kitten, and leo falls in love with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	his name is Pyro, like you wanted

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys! this is my first pjato fic and i hope you guys enjoy it! this had actually happened to me, only with a black kitty named Chester, only I made Leo handle the situation a lot better than I did. x

**.x.**

  
The first time Leo saw that cat, that _kitten_ , in the store he knew that he wanted to get it and he knew that it also was a terrible idea to go to PetSmart in the first place. He looked over at where his blond boyfriend was, who was nowhere to be found, and that was probably because he was actually getting things for Thalia’s dog -- which was the _actual_ reason for why they were here.

  
“Jaaaason.” He stepped out of the little area where the cats were located, and he looked around. “ _Jaaaaaaason_.” He said, that time a little louder. He didn’t want to leave the little kitten in his cage all by himself, and so he quickly figured Jason would come look for him if he didn’t meet up with him sooner. But, in his defense, Leo spotted the kitten as soon as they came in and he didn’t think Jason thought he followed him.

  
He stepped back inside the cats’ area and stood back over by the orange cat, rubbing his head with his finger, and the cat purred quietly. “You’re so cute.” He complimented the cat, growing attached to it at an alarming rate. That wasn’t fair, normally he didn’t do those kinds of things, but that cat, _that cat_ , was the essence of cute, and there wasn’t any way not to fall in love with it.

  
The cat clawed at the bars in between them and tried to get Leo’s hand, meowing a little and Leo had to bite his lip to keep from squealing.

  
Okay, that _definitely_ wasn’t fair.

  
The cat, who couldn’t possibly be older than a year, showed his yellowish eyes up at Leo, and dammit, he was sold and there wasn’t going to be any argument, he was getting that kitten. He looked at the little tag on his cage and noticed he was nine months and was perfect already, had been neutered and had his shots up to date.

  
There was no way that Jason could say no to that.

  
Leo squeezed the cat’s paw, watching as the kitten meowed and purred. “I’m sure Jason will love you!” He smiled enthusiastically, and almost speaking of the Devil, Leo heard his name being called by his boyfriend.

  
“...What are you doing?” Leo turned to see an amused smile on Jason’s face, and Leo faced him, shrugging a shoulder. “Come on, let’s go pay for Thalia’s dog’s food and let’s go, Piper’s waiting for us at the restaurant.” A little mischievous smirk tugged at the Hispanic’s lips as he shook his head.

  
“Superman, come _oooon_.”

  
The puzzle seemed to connect and piece itself together, and Jason stared at the other boy before shaking his head. “No.”

  
“Jaaaaace!” Leo pouted, stepping aside to show the blond the cat. “He’s orange and everything and he’s all caught up on his shots, and he’s only nine months, and we could totally take care of him and we could call him--!”

  
“Leo, you and I both know that you’d be too busy to look after him, so come on,” Jason set the big bag of food down on the floor and held his hand out for Leo to take, but Leo, surprisingly, stood still. “Come on, we have to hurry up and pay for this dog food and go to the restaurant.”

  
“We could call him Pyro or like, Hobbes or something…” Leo sighed, watching the blond shake his head and he shoved his hands into his coat pockets, fingering the little gears and levers he had in them.

  
“No, I’m sorry, Leo. We can’t afford a cat right now, and we’re both in college so we’re going to be super busy. Just be lucky that we can afford mortgage with my sister, too, y’know.”

  
“And going out to restaurants with your ex-girlfriend, too, apparently.” Leo muttered under his breath.

  
Jason stepped forward, closer to the other boy, who was playing with the things in his pockets. “Leo, come on. I don’t want to be the bad guy, but…”

  
Eventually, Leo let out a tiny sigh. _Keep moving_ , he thought to himself and pushed past Jason, walking out of the cat area (and he really tried to ignore hearing the kitten meow to him and damn, it broke his heart) and out of the store, out to their car without another word, leaving Jason in there all by himself to pay for the dog food.

  
He noticed their truck was unlocked, and mentally made a note to tease Jason about it, but he couldn’t come up with anything. “What is wrong with me?” He thought aimlessly, closing the door as he sat comfortably in the passenger’s seat. “Keep moving, keep moving. It’s just a cat.”

  
But that kitten was so damn cute, it was hard to keep moving away from that thought that it might not get adopted, and so it was too hard for him. Way harder than it should’ve been, because it was just a cat. It wasn’t like anything else that he had to move on from. It was just that it seemed so simple and so easy to get, that now because he couldn’t get it, he felt even worse. He rested his head against the window, taking the gears out of his pocket and playing with them to calm his nerves.

  
Ten minutes later, Leo spotted Jason walking out of the store, the dog food under his arm and the keys in one hand. He looked at himself in the side mirror, like he had done before again and again, and found that same stupid frown on his face, all because of that cat.

  
(And also, why the fuck did it take him ten minutes to pay for the dog food?)

  
Jason caught sight of the frown when he passed by Leo’s side of the car, only to put the food in the trunk. What surprised Leo, though, was instead of coming up the driver’s side of the car, Jason retraced his steps and opened the door on Leo’s side.

  
It scared him a little, since the curly-haired boy was leaning up against the window, but he looked at the blond with an arched eyebrow. He decided then that it would be best if he actually did move on, because the whole thing was putting a damper on his mood, and he didn’t like that one bit. “Leo…” Jason mumbled, stroking the other’s cheek as a sign of affection. “I’m sorry.”

  
“It’s whatever, alright?” Leo gave a false smile, pretending he loved how Jason’s thumb felt swiping over his cheekbone, and he hoped that maybe that would get him to actually realize that he didn’t need that cat. “It would’ve been a _cat_ -astrophe if we had gotten him anyway.”

  
Pun One, down. How many to go? Leo wasn’t sure.

  
Jason rolled his eyes and smiled, and he almost looked like he wanted to say something, but Leo was too busy thinking of puns to notice. The blond gave a small little laugh before pressing his lips against Leo’s forehead, and he let go and turned away, heading toward the driver’s seat. Leo closed the door that was forgotten, tching at Jason’s forgetfulness (teasingly, of course). The blond put the car in drive, and off toward the restaurant they were, with many, many puns relating to the orange kitten.

  
 **.x.**

  
Leo still couldn’t believe that he was still wanting that cat, so he had locked himself away in his shop, tinkering with things until three in the morning. It got so bad that Jason had to carry him into their house (since the shop was only a few blocks down) and it looked bad since Leo was almost always whining, talking in his sleep and drooling on Jason’s shirt as he hauled him into the truck.

  
It looked like he was a drunk mess and Jason almost laughed if it weren’t for the fact that he was exhausted. He probably looked drunk too, but a lesser kind of drunk to where he knew what he was doing. Tipsy, maybe? He wondered if he looked tipsy.

  
As soon as they made it up to their bed though, which was harder than it should’ve been, Jason set the Hispanic boy down on the bed, and he could hear him let out a whine from the cold. Figuring he would just give in to the loss of sleep, Jason draped one arm around Leo, who was lying on his stomach. Before falling into a deep sleep, Jason heard the word ‘pyro’ and he immediately felt bad about telling him no, but he figured that it would be soon over with.

  
 **.x.**

  
Two days without the cat, and Leo was starting to drive himself insane with it. He didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, or why he couldn’t move on from it. He just fell in love with the kitten and how it meowed, but how could Jason say no to that?

  
He let out a tiny sigh, feeling the heat from the sun shine down on him through the windows in his shop. He was back at square one again with the cat thing, and it was bothering him a little. Or, maybe it was the sun that was the problem. Out of all the windows in the shop (which were like, five or six, eight at the most) the sun had to shine in where he was working. He was already sweating, but that didn’t mean the sun had to make it worse.

  
So, he was already irritable by noon.

  
He hadn’t heard from Jason since seven AM either, and that wasn’t ever a good thing. He claimed he was hanging out with Percy, but Leo had texted the fishbrain and he said he was going to be hanging out with Nico. Leo wasn’t going to argue about that, so maybe Jason was coming along with them?

  
As he came out to the front of the shop, where there was a little resting place or something for his friends, or whatnot (customers, too, since he did co-own the shop with another manager) he had noticed Piper stopped by with a sack lunch and left it in the little fridge they had. He opened the brown paper bag, and attached to the bag with a cheese sandwich in it, there was a note. In Piper’s handwriting, it said, ‘ _I figured you didn’t have breakfast, so here. Because I knew you wouldn’t eat anything. Also, he’s so cute! I love him. Definitely a good choice_.’

  
What the heck was she talking about?

  
At first, Leo thought of Jason, and his irritable mood got in the way, but then he figured that wouldn’t have made sense, because it seemed like it was a new thing that was a good choice.

  
(He’ll have to make a little comment about how unclear she was in her note, because that was just ridiculous.)

  
He’ll just have to wait until the other manager comes in to take over for him and for Jason to come get him, because now he was a little more excited. He ate his lunch in peace, smiling at Piper’s little triangle-cut sandwiches and her bags with the smiley faces on them. He had figured that she would be nice and try to lighten Leo's mood, and it did. It was extremely nice of her to make him lunch, since she was probably busy with Annabeth, but Leo kept the note in his pocket as he munched on Cheetos (even if they were a bit cold from the fridge).

  
He felt like a little kid again, but that was alright, _because even manly men like me love chocolate milk and sack lunches_ , he thought with a chug.

  
After finishing his lunch, he threw away the bag and made his way back into the shop, eagerly working away the hours until it was time for Jason to come pick him up, because even though he wanted to stay and continue working until three in the morning, he wanted to see if it was really _him_ that Piper was talking about.

  
(Leo heard the door open and ran out, only to be greeted by his manager. Poop.)

  
Jason greeted him with a smile whenever he arrived, and Leo was buzzing as he sat in the little hang out area. He had been staying in there for over thirty minutes, tinkering and messing with the magazines and things that were in there to keep his mind busy. “Hey, Leo,” Jason said and Leo hopped up, his hands in his pockets.

  
“Who was it that Piper was talking about, in this note?” Leo asked, fishing through the metal in his pockets to find the handwritten note. When he did find it, he showed it to the blond who bit his lip and shrugged a shoulder.

  
“I dunno, Pipe’s weird like that.” Jason muttered and turned away quickly, opening the door for the smaller boy. “Come on then, let’s get you home.” He laughed nervously, pushing on Leo’s shoulders and _yeah_ , Leo definitely knew something was up. Jason was always bad at hiding these sorts of things -- like the time Jason got Leo this really awesome screwdriver for his birthday and Leo kept asking about it until he was able to tell that the blond really did get it for him. Annabeth didn’t let Leo live it down for days.  
The entire car ride home, he was restless. They were going home, which normally meant that there would be dinner and then a movie (and maybe something after that, but Leo didn’t want to think about it at the moment) but what about what Piper said? Would it really be him?

  
Jason parked the car on the side of the road, getting out and walking over to the door of the house they shared with Thalia and Leo had followed him. “So, ‘Pipe’s weird like that’, huh?” Leo asked, still thinking about it and Jason nodded his head. “Weird, she’s never usually like a riddle.”

  
“Well, she’s dating Annabeth Chase, you know, and _that_ girl is a puzzle.” Jason mumbled and opened the door, and Leo sighed at how warm the hallway was. “Thalia’s home, too, by the way.”

  
“When is she never home?” Leo asked under his breath and heard the barking of Artemis (her German shepherd) outside, which he expected to hear.

  
What he didn’t expect to hear was the soft meow and Thalia giggling from inside the kitchen, and Leo almost dropped his coat. There was a little cat-climbing station set up in the corner of the living room, but they seemed to walk past it, Jason trying to hide a smile on his face.

  
“Jace, what is that…?” Leo asked, but the blond turned to him, reaching to grab his arm.

  
“C’mon, I’ll show you. Follow me.” There was a smile on Jason’s face and Leo actually felt butterflies in his stomach. He was so nervous, he felt butterflies. That wasn’t very manly, was it? Oh well. Leo didn’t really care at that point, because as soon as he rounded the corner into the kitchen, he saw Thalia holding a small, orange kitten in her arms. _So that’s who Piper was talking about... I was right._

  
“N-Nuh uh, you didn’t…” Leo mumbled, a big (yet confused) grin on his face. “How? Is that what took you so long to buy the dog food?”

  
“Yeah, pretty much. And Percy and Nico came along whenever I got him from the pet shop,” Jason concluded as Leo walked up to Thalia -- who, was taller than him and he tried not to mind -- petting the orange kitten behind the ears. The kitten meowed quietly and Leo laughed excitedly. “I felt bad because you seemed so upset. And, his name is Pyro, like you wanted.”

  
“Thank you, Jason.”

  
“You’re welcome.”

  
 **.x.**

**Author's Note:**

> basically this had a few of my headcanons laced in here, like jason is bad at keeping secrets (not like major secrets, but like secrets about gifts and things). Piper was almost always able to tell what Jason got her for Christmas. Leo usually takes advantage of it since he always wants to know -- Annabeth never lets him live it down. also im pretty sure in any au Thalia would have a big dog and she would name it Artemis. just sayin. also Percy and Leo are the pun masters but that's a given. ahh i'll stop now about headcanons uwu


End file.
